Asobi Seksu - Hush (One Little Indian)
4/5
Asobi Seksu are enjoying, to a certain extent, the fruits of what has been termed in recent years "the Skins effect", with prime cut from their 2006 LP Citrus, 'Nefi and Girly', soundtracking the adverts for the new series. However, pre-pubescent youngsters graduating from 'Nefi...' to the band's third release Hush may find themselves a little bemused. You see, 'Nefi...', while undoubtedly a terrific song, is one of the least representative of the group in the whole of their canon. Whereas that particular track rollicks along on cut-throat guitars and a frantic bassline, coupled with the contemplative keys and sighs of singer Yuki Chikudate, tracks such as Hush opener 'Layers' recline on a bed of warm chimes, immersing the listener in a feeling not dissimilar to waking sleep, the moment between consciousness and the land of nod.
And 'Layers', it must be said, is a totally gorgeous track. The thick, comforting harmonies of Chikudate wash over the coos of organs behind her, and by doing so invoke a manifesto for Hush - "under layers". Because, as much as the accompanying press release may claim that the group, in the words of guitarist and band leader James Hanna, "stripped the sound down and built it back up from there", it is still unmistakeably Asobi; unmistakeably shoegaze; unmistakeably, as also claimed by the blurb, "skirting what some might refer to as 'Kevin Shields syndrome'".
To be quite frank, they couldn't have picked a better time to establish themselves. Thanks in no small way to Asobi themselves, but mainly due to the My Bloody Valentine re-union of last year, shoegaze is enjoying a much-warranted resurgence of late. But the group know they cannot just fall into idle pastiche (they've said so themselves), and so distil their sound into a sleek nutshell for the album.
And so they take to the task with great gusto. Both borrowing and crafting in equal measure, the band set out to carve out a niche in which they can sit snugly in for a while to come and from which they can maybe, just maybe, wash, like a potent and joyous sedative, over the mainstream. The requisite shoegaze components are still all present (wailing, thick guitar melodies, fluxing Bambi synthesisers, vocals that sound like they were taped in a waterfall), and along with these they snatch odds and sods from their self-titled debut and Citrus - the whip-crack drums of 'Familiar Life', the insistent bass of 'Glacially' - and even at times borrow wholesale from them ('Me and Mary', 'In the Sky'). But added to these are a newfound sophistication, a heightened emotional sensitivity that take the group's sound to the next level - just witness the brooding ebb and release of 'Green Coloured Day'.
Hush, while containing nothing as immediately potent as Citrus era singles 'Thursday' and 'Goodbye' (and even 'Nefi and Girly'), is the slow-burner's slow-burner - hitting you in the gut, on the sly, the first time around, and slowly unravelling with each subsequent excursion. Asobi Seksu, while perhaps needing to work a little more on creating a music truly personal to them, are nevertheless one of the most endearing and admirable bands of the late-noughties. Give it just a little more time, and they could be something really special.
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